AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and our guest this week on Wordmaster is writer Paul Dixon, just out with a new version of Slang: The Topical Dictionary of Americanisms. PAUL DIXON: Most slang dictionaries go A-to-Z and they co-mingle the s...

Welcome to this week's Wordmaster. I'm Adam Phillips. That is the sound of a wild fire. Although late September and early October usually signal the end of forest fire season in North America, 2006 has been far worse than usual in terms of the number...

Punctuation Rap PUNK, PUNK, PUNCTUATION PUNK, PUNK, PUNCTUATION I am a QUESTION MARK, what do I do? I'm at the end of questions, like Where? What? or Who? PUNK, PUNK, PUNCTUATION PUNK, PUNK, PUNCTUATION I am a PERIOD, that means full stop, At the end...

AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on Wordmaster: the founder of National Punctuation Day. RS: Sunday was the day for a celebration of the lowly comma, correctly used quotes and other proper uses of periods, semicolons and the ev...

AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on Wordmaster: an electronic tutoring system that helps non-native speakers of American English learn to pronounce words with a native accent. RS: The product is called NativeAccent. It's sold b...

AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on Wordmaster: linguist Walt Wolfram from North Carolina State University, a self-described dialect nomad who likes to wander through the dialects of American English. RS: And where has this nom...

AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on Wordmaster: extremism by any other name. RS: The term Islamofascism, or Islamic fascists, has prompted some debate. We were curious how the term fascism originated and how political scientist...

AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on Wordmaster: advice from a writing coach. RS: Jack Hart is a managing editor at The Oregonian newspaper in Portland. We talked to him last year about the classic writing guide by William Strun...

AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on Wordmaster: going beyond the rules of grammar. RS: Diane Larsen-Freeman is director of the English Language Institute at the University of Michigan. She believes grammar is better understood...

AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble. This week on Wordmaster: English teacher Lida Baker joins us from Los Angeles to talk about authentic listening materials. RS: It's the subject of her latest textbook, called Real Talk 1. LIDA BAKER: One of t...